life on LA's westside

Our Home: Demo

People. Our house! I know we are overdue for posting our After pics... You've seen the Befores, and you're just dying to see the results. Before we do that, though, let's continue along our journey of renovations and see Step 2 of the process. Demo.

We did most of the demo ourselves because it saves some money, and hey--ripping out disgusting old carpet is a great stress reliever. Wear thick gloves. That is my best piece of advice.

It only took us a few hours total for the whole top floor. Stairs were another couple hours and were a bit trickier. Tack strips and nails took an additional few hours with a solid crowbar (but make sure to leave those if you'll be laying down new carpet).

Ripping out the laminate flooring downstairs was a workout. Lots of shoveling and crumbling--it didn't unlock and come apart as easily as we had hoped. But we got rid of it, in all its cherry-red glory.

Tearing out the kitchen cabinets was a fun project for the guys. Our friend Jake showed up at the front door with a sledge hammer and the biggest smile I've ever seen (see pic for proof).

We also ripped 2 bathrooms down to the studs. In our master bath, we lost everything except the tub, which was still in good condition.

Then The Pile was born. And our motto increasingly became it has to get worse before it gets better...Right?

We used a company called JunkJunk Los Angeles to haul away our construction debris, and we highly recommend them (link above)!

hi, i'm lauren.

it's no secret i think LA's westside is the bestside. on the blog we'll talk food, home decor, stuff to do around town, and all things related to building a home in this crazy city of mine. they say write what you know, so here goes!